Bed Bath & Beyond fans in California nostalgic for the in-store experience will have to make do with the company’s website after an executive said the retailer won’t open any stores in the Golden State.
Marcus Lemonis, executive chairman of Bed Bath & Beyond, said in a statement on Wednesday that the business environment in California makes it difficult for retailers to operate.
“California has created one of the most overregulated, expensive and risky environments for businesses in America,” he said. “It’s a system that makes it harder to employ people, harder to keep doors open and harder to deliver value to customers.”
“This decision isn’t about politics — it’s about reality,” Lemonis added.
The company’s announcement comes just weeks after the Brand House Collective, the specialty retailer that manages the Bed Bath & Beyond brand owned by Beyond Inc., opened its first in-person store in Nashville after Bed Bath & Beyond shuttered hundreds of locations in declaring bankruptcy in 2023.
In addition to giving the store a new name — Bed Bath & Beyond Home — Brand House said it would honor legacy coupons, the big white and blue paper slips that have become synonymous with the Bed Bath & Beyond brand.
At the time of the new store’s launch, a spokesperson for the Brand House Collective said it was planning to open four additional Bed Bath and Beyond Home stores in the Nashville area.
The company also has its sights set on expanding in other markets. Brand House Collective spokesperson Amy Sullivan told CBS MoneyWatch on Wednesday that the company plans to open additional physical stores in different cities in a “curated, smaller format.”
“We intend to convert the vast majority of our existing Kirkland’s fleet into Bed Bath & Beyond stores while also pursuing new real estate opportunities,” she said.
Kirkland’s, which is based in Nashville, rebranded as the Brand House Collective in July.
“We’d love to bring the brand back to every city, but it has to make sense for our customers and for the business,” she said. “Until conditions change, California won’t be on our Bed Bath & Beyond roadmap.”
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